Winter Break

Between my having surgery and the weather being COLD, we haven't gotten out of the house much over the last couple of weeks. Building a new track and playing with trains has become a daily ritual. It seems Gavin has a different favorite train each day. Today Henry (Engine #3) gets top billing. Make way, Thomas!


The air in Cache Valley can get pretty yucky in the wintertime. When the weather gets stagnant and the cold sets in, "red air days" are not uncommon. In the week before Christmas our local paper reported both that Logan had the worst air quality in the nation, and that Logan is the 4th most secure small town in the nation. So, we take the bad with the good. Today we are finally getting a break from the bitter cold and getting some snow. The air will be clearer, the temperatures will be tolerable, and the snowman manufacturing will commence shortly.

Meet Tyler

Tyler is the newest addition to our herd. We took him in as a foster kitty a few days before Christmas and we like him so much that we're going to adopt him.

Merry Christmas!

Santa was so good to Gavin this year that he couldn't help but do a little dance in celebration...

He unwrapped trains, tracks, books, DVDs, clothes (boring!), candy (candy!), a TV tray, new life jacket, snow goggles, a potty seat, and lots and lots of smiles from his mommy and daddy.

On Christmas Eve we went to the Wolfe family Christmas party where we got to see lots of aunts and uncles and cousins and most importantly, Brandon's Grandma Wolfe (we hadn't seen her in a loooong time). Gavin and Grandpa shared lots of giggles and kisses.

The Roses

Gavin has the most wonderful babysitters - Marie and David Rose. Can you believe they actually give these kids glue and paint and frosting and glitter?! I love all of the homemade things Gavin brings home each week. For Christmas we got lots of fun little crafts, plus a CD with dozens of pictures of Gavin on it. Here are a few of my favorites...

Gavin and Josie

Nan stopped by the other day with her niece Josie. Josie is so sweet with Gavin. She has twin older brothers, an older sister, and a little brother who is ~4 months younger than Gavin so she's an expert at sharing. They hung out in Gavin's "fort" and they played games on my iPod and they played "stand on the table and toss toys into the basket". The highlight of Josie's visit, though, was the marching band performance...

Hyrum's Holiday at Hardware

Yesterday from 11 to 2 Hyrum residents could go up to Hardware Ranch and get a free sleigh ride through the elk, free hot chocolate and cookies, AND a visit with Santa! Afterward we tried to go sledding but there wasn't enough snow. I'll bet there's plenty up there today, though! I think it snowed a foot in our yard between yesterday afternoon and this morning.

This is my first creation with some free software called Smilebox. Thought I'd give it a whirl. I'm not impressed that the "e" was cut off the end of the stylishly paper-clipped title. Other than that it's kinda neat...

Make a Smilebox collage

The pen is mightier than the crayon

Once he finished the crossword puzzle Gavin decided it was high time he start drafting his letter to Santa.

Body Art

Kinda makes you wonder... Just what exactly do they mean when they say, "non-toxic"?

Thanksliving 2009

Friends and family from UT, CO, and AZ converged at Pete's house over the weekend in celebration of Thanksliving ("It's not a holiday, it's a lifestyle"). Emily won the cribbage tournament. Brandon and Tony successfully defended their title in the horseshoe tournament, and we found out that having a Sequence tournament the same weekend as a cribbage tournament and a horseshoe tournament was a bit too much to attempt. Oh, and as the sole participant, I, Julie, won the Turkey Trot 5K. OK, technically Brody won since she got to the finish line before I did and since she probably ran the equivalent of a 5K while I only managed to go ~4K. Pete was a gracious host, as always, and the weather in Apple Valley was crisply divine. So much revelry, so much friendliness, and so much thankfulness. Except when the Bears lost to the Vikes. Dangit.

What a shame.

He's addicted to the white stuff. And at such a young age...
Snow angels got nothing on this kid.

Cedar City

Over the weekend we trekked down to Cedar City to visit with the Coates clan. Gavin got a kick out of playing with Nan's nieces and nephews. I think he and little blonde Josie would be best buds if they saw each other more often. And I think he could learn a lot about chillaxin' from Casey (aka Brutus) who is 4 months his junior. He's going to be disappointed when he wakes up tomorrow and can't go out and visit the horses or go for a ride on the 4-wheeler.

Halloweeny Good Times

We had a full day on Saturday. We started out at home, then went to Ogden and checked out the trains at Union Station. We decided to see what the Train Museum had to offer and I must say, it was pretty neat! Gavin's favorite part was the wooden toy train set (it got ugly when we decided it was time to move on from that area) but my favorite part was the model railroads. The displays were many and elaborate and SO detailed. We met up with Paula for lunch at Rooster's, then went to Brooke's house for the better part of the afternoon. Max joined me and Brandon and Gavin for some earlybird trick-or-treating before Brandon and I snuck away to an adult Halloween party at our friends Angela and Allen's house in Layton. Angela doesn't mess around when she throws a party. Four giant platters of sushi, an in-house professional makeup artist, and lots of spooky high-end cocktails. Suffice it to say it took me a little while to get going this morning. Thank goodness for Brandon and Brooke (and that extra daylight savings hour) or we never would have been ready for Gavin's birthday party at noon.

Happy Birthday, Gavin!

Two years strong, and growing!

We held a small birthday celebration for Gavin at his Aunt Brooke's house in Ogden on Sunday. Gavin is gaga about trains so we made sure he was surrounded by them. He had a Thomas cake and for lunch we served tacos from the "Taco Train". I'm not sure if he realized that all the fuss was for him but he had a good time.

Punkin' Carvin'

And to think, all these years we've been throwing that slimy pumpkin pulp in the compost pile...



What other use could you possibly have for hollowed-out pumpkins?


Wrasslin' with Mommy.


The finished product.

Max's B-Day & Halloween Party #1

On Saturday we joined Brooke's family and friends in celebration of Max's 4th birthday. Max is way into superheroes and quite a few heroes showed up at his party. Even Super G showed up! Gavin had a great time not only at Max's party but at Max's grandma's annual Halloween party later in the evening. While Gavin was having the time of his life with his cousins, Brandon and I went to Sean & Emily's house to have dinner with them and with Tom & Paula before the 6 of us donned our costumes and went to Jason & Gabriella Hunter's annual Halloween bash in SLC. Lots of great costumes, two kegs of Fat Tire, a DJ spinning party tunes, and not much sleep.

The Crazies

Every evening before bedtime Gavin gets a little C R A Z Y....

San Juan Birthday Float

We had the extreme pleasure this year of spending my birthday floating down the river on Stella, our faithful, inflatable raft. Our group consisted of 14 adults, 3 kids, and 3 toddlers floating on 5 rafts, a cataraft, 2 duckies, and a kayak. We floated the San Juan River from Sand Island (near Bluff) to Mexican Hat over the course of 3 days and 2 nights. The weather was fabulous - warm and sunny during the day and bundle-up-and-snuggle chilly at night. It's late enough in the season that the cottonwoods were aflame in a gorgeous golden yellow. We saw a few bighorn sheep and geese along the way.

Gavin was happy and content pretty much the whole time (special thanks to the Zierchers and their wooden Thomas & Friends train set) and he slept like a rock in the tent. I'm thrilled not only because it made the trip that much nicer, but it also bodes well for future floats. His favorite part was the rapids. Seriously - he kept saying, "mo' bubbooes?". Now if only we can figure out how to get him to take a mid-day nap on the boat...

Jen Z. made me a special birthday tutu and a birthday crown to wear during the day, and in the evening she and the rest of the crew cooked up a heap of the best enchiladas I think I've ever had (the margaritas may have had something to do with that, but I still think they were the best ever).

We forgot to bring our camera so on the drive down we stopped and bought a new one that's much more compact than our forgotten one, while also boasting twice the resolution in a shockproof, waterproof body. The battery only lasted a day, but we managed to get a few good shots. Check back for a link to the PicasaWeb album.